“No,” said Speed, harshly, and turned away. But in that instant Jacqueline flung open the window and vaulted into the garden. Before I could realize what had happened she was only a glimmering spot in the darkness. Then Speed and I followed her, running swiftly toward the foot of the garden, but we were too late; a slim, white shape rose from the top of the wall and leaped blindly out through the ruddy torch glare into the blackness beyond.
We heard a soldier’s startled cry, a commotion, curses, and astonished exclamations from the other side of the wall.
“It was something, I tell you!” roared a soldier. “Something that jumped over the cliff!”
“It was an owl, idiot!” retorted his comrade.
“I tell you I saw it!” protested the other, in a shaking voice.
“Then you saw a witch of Ker-Ys,” bawled another. “Look out for your skin in the first battle. It’s death to see such things.”
I looked at Speed. He stood wide-eyed, staring at vacancy.
“Could she do it?” I asked, horrified. 373
“God knows,” he whispered.
Soldiers were beginning to clamber up the garden wall from the outside; torches were raised to investigate. As we shrank back into the shadow of the shrubbery I stumbled over something soft—Jacqueline’s clothes, lying in a circle as she had stepped out of them.